I got a real blow from the American edition of Vogue recently. Yes, although we have the Chinese edition of Vogue here as well as a few dozen other fashion magazine, I'm actually buying the American edition. And that's because of a DVD.
Monthly ago I watched a movie called "Sept Issue" on DVD - it's a documentary about the publication of the Sept issue of Vogue magazine in year 2007, the thickest magazine ever by then. Obviously the materials were collected long time ago for some internal purpose but at the aspiration of the commercial success of Devil Wears Prada, the people involved decided to get it make into a documentary.
Anyway, it's a job well-done coz my admiration for the Vogue magazine grew to such an extent that I actually went online to buy the American edition and get it mailed to Shanghai every month. I feel quite indignant that it cost only RMB200 for a year in U.S. and there's a promotion of buy one get one free, so it's essentially RMB100 a year, but to get it mailed to China, it costs RMB460. At the same time, the Chinese edition here it costs RMB240 for a year and it's simply not as good.
Two months later, the first issue of my long-waited American Vogue landed in my lap and the first impression is that the Recession must be over in U.S. already, coz the Mar edition is filled all of advertisements � I can hardly find the beginning of the "contents" coz it starts only on page 198.
A much bigger, way more profound revelation came after I went page by page on the advertisements, to put it in simple English: it is cheaper to live in U.S. now than to live in Shanghai, if you live on the same fashion items in the advertisements of Vogue.
It has long been no secrets that to buy any Luxury brand in China is way much more expensive than to buy it in U.S. or Europe, and that is usually explained away with the import tax. And it's fine because the Luxury stuff has only to do with the rich people, in case the enlightened ordinary citizen decides she needs a LV handbag or a pair of Ferragamo shoes and is willing to hand in two or three months of salary, it's fine too because that is called exactly an Luxury Item.
Nevertheless, what we're having now is no more a luxury problem but a mass market problem. And the window to the problem opens from the price announcement on the advertising of American Vogue: Brahmin "Lydia" leather hobo at USD295, roughly the same price vs. any mass market handbag in any department store of Shanghai; Adrianna Papell floral print dress with rosettes, USD 138, cheaper than any clothing item you randomly pick up in Shanghai's department store, which usually lay above USD150, Calvin Klein "Dylan" boa print birdcage sandal, USD119, cheaper than any new arrival I just checked over the show department…. As hard as I find this amazing and unbelievable, it is as real as what they say "black and white" or, "printed words".
Actually I may be very late for this realization; the Chinese who immigrated to U.S. in the recent years have known it much earlier. My friend who immigrated to U.S. twelve years ago used to make bulk purchase of clothing and shoes when she came back to Shanghai on rare occasions, but a few years ago, she told me, a pair of shows in Shanghai costs the same as in London (she lived in London then). I wasn't paying attention then, but now I looked back at that moment and see it is the first sign of uninhabitality of Shanghai, that is, on top of the poor quality of air, water, processed food… And oh by the way, an average apartment in Shanghai costs more than an average apartment in NYC too.
So the world has really changed, I bow my head and think, but when? I'm thinking of a piece of information from a recent report by Booz-Allen or Boston Consulting, it says over 50% of American business surveyed by the Amcham reported above than average profit margin from China over its global average. So China has, before we take notice, lifts itself from the cheap supply of labor, to an unlimited land of affluent, or at least, willing, consumers; and the multinational companies have been harvesting profits from not only the market's sheer volume, but wide margin too.
Lamenting as deep as I am as a consumer, considering my newly gained insight (that the booming China economy also provide exceptional opportunity for earning), I decide to console myself with the prospect of retire aboard in Canada or Australia one day with my hard-earned money from China, I can have pure air and pure water one day, perhaps. And if I could be lucky in the stock market, I might upgrade my retiree vision to a Mediterranean terrace. Keep dreaming, as the American movies advise.
Still, if I could have a choice. I want to move to America, now.
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